Crystal Radiance
by KHLostEmpress
Summary: Modern Fantasy Tale: Sora's 16th birthday didn't go as planned. Starting off with a strange dream, it ended with him unconscious. Not to mention all that happened in between. Embroiled in a 1000 year old legend, he must save the girl and defeat the bad guy before he wipes out two worlds. The story ended in tragedy once before; is history doomed to repeat itself? Sleeping Beauty
1. Prologue

Author's Notes: Modern Fantasy Tale- Sleeping Beauty

So, I posted this once before and wasn't really happy with the story. So, I took it down to kind of redo it, not to mention, I saw all the blaring plot holes that were about the been thrown in my face. So, here I am, trying again. The prologue is short, and chapters will be longer (my average is 3000 words; I typically post nothing unless it is at least 3000 words).

* * *

Wide, bright lavender blue eyes peeked around a corner and lit up with mirth as a small giggle escaped the tiny pink lips. Neither her mother nor her uncle were within sight. Kairi, recently turned four years old Princess of Ethra, had successfully escaped the nursery. Now that she had, she decided that exploring was definitely in order, even though she didn't really know where she was. Besides the nursery, she'd only really been to her mother's and her uncle's rooms inside the palace.

Everyone was _always_ telling her it wasn't safe to wander around by herself. Kairi didn't believe them. Radiant Garden, especially the Palace, was the safest place in the whole world, and no one would ever hurt her because she was the princess. Even if there was a war going on. She didn't really understand what a war was exactly, but she did know it wasn't safe. And Kairi knew she didn't like it because it made her daddy leave. The last time she'd seen him had been when she was two, and that was _ages_ ago. Sometimes, she even had to look at his picture to remember what he looked like, and that made her really sad.

With quick and light butterfly steps, Kairi fluttered down the empty hallway. All she knew was that she was following The Thing. She didn't know what The Thing was, but for her whole life she'd always felt it. It moved often and never stayed in the same place long during the day, but she'd always had the desire to go to where The Thing was. So, that was what she was following now. She giggled into her hands; Kairi knew she was getting closer to The Thing. A door led her into a ground floor outer hallway with wide open windows. If Kairi stood on her tiptoes and pulled herself up, she could barely manage to see over the sill to view the garden beyond.

A grin lit up her face. Kairi could only remember a few times where her mother or uncle had taken her outside to the gardens. Most of the time, she had to be satisfied with looking at them through the windows. She looked further down the hallway and spotted the large archway that would let her out onto the grass. Excitedly, she realized The Thing was out there. She'd really liked seeing the flowers when she had gone out to be around them, and Kairi would love to see them again.

Kairi glanced back the way she'd come and, finding no one behind her, took off at a sprint for the doorway. So focused on finding The Thing, she skipped past the flowers of all colors, telling herself that she would come back as soon as she found it. The trail led her to a small group of trees, and she heard the voice of a boy from inside them. "...fall and break your neck, I'm not helping."

Another's boy's voice, lighter and somehow more playful, laughed out a reply. "Come on, Riku. It's fun!" Peeking around a tree trunk, Kairi saw two boys about her own age. The older one, a boy with white hair hanging to the bottom of his ears, stood on the ground with his arms folded across his chest. The other boy was hanging upside down on one of the lowest branches of the tree, so Kairi couldn't tell if his brown hair spiked like that naturally or not. She did realize that whatever had been leading her ended where the boys were. Did that mean that one of them had The Thing? Deciding that she had better go find out, Kairi took off to talk to them, only to trip over a tree root and fall to her hands and knees with an oomph.

Stunned for a brief moment, she heard something else hit the ground before a second later, small hands were helping her up. "Geez, are you okay?" When she looked up at the light voice, she found it was the brown-haired boy and that his hair was indeed just like that—spiked up all over the place. The white-haired boy—what had he called him? Riku?—was not far behind. If she had been a little older, she might have wondered how the boy, who had been hanging from a tree, beat the boy on the ground to her side, but the only thing her young mind focused on was the fact that the pull that had so defined her whole life disappeared the moment the boy had touched her. Which lead Kairi to only one conclusion.

"You're The Thing!" she exclaimed excitedly.

His reaction was not what she was expecting. His face, which had been smiling until now even when it had displayed the concern over her fall, turned down into a frown with his bottom lip jutting out in a pout. Riku, on the other hand, started to laugh, falling onto the ground as he gripped his stomach. Kairi didn't see why what she said was funny. The boy turned to his friend and hissed, "Shut up, Riku!" He folded his arms tight across his chest as he gave Kairi a glare. "I'm not a thing. I'm Sora."

_Sora_. The name repeated itself in Kairi's mind, cementing its place in her memory. The pull to him returned the moment his hands left her. "But your _My_ Thing, too," she iterated. She brushed the grass off her palms and knees as she spoke. While her palms and knees stung a little, her happiness of finding The Thing—_Sora_—outweighed the pain (not to mention that she found no grass stains on her clothes; her nanny hated when she got her clothes dirty). She flashed a brilliant smile at him, but Sora just looked confused. "I've been wanting to see you for forever."

"I'm not a thing," Sora muttered quietly. He looked at Riku, seeking the support of his friend.

On the other hand, Riku was looking at Kairi. "What do you mean? You wanted to see Sora?"

With an air of her own confusion, Kairi stared at him. "Can't you feel it? I've always felt it. Where Sora is. My Thing. Though I didn't know it was him. Mama and Uncle Ven never let me find it before."

And Riku suddenly looked like he knew exactly what she was talking about. "Who are you?"

"Oh!" Kairi exclaimed. She should have introduced herself a long time ago. Her nanny would say that it was the proper thing for a princess to do. Dipping into a semblance of the curtsy her nanny was trying to teach her, she said, "Hello. I am Kairi, Princess of Ethra. It's nice to meet you." Proud of herself for getting the words right, Kairi beamed at the two boys.

Sora's bright blue eyes lit up in excitement, and for the first time, Kairi noticed that they were the same color as Uncle Ven's eyes. But...different, too. She wasn't sure how; they just were. He fairly bounced back to her and gripped her hands. Kairi was startled but still noted that once again his touch caused the pull to disappear again. "You're the princess? That's so cool! Is your dad the King? He's fighting the war, right? That's where our dad is. He said he had to help the king fight the bad guy."

A hand rested on the boy's shoulder. "Sora, stop."

The grin that filled Sora's face as he rubbed the back of his head was definitely sheepish. "Sorry." His other hand joined the first as the boy stood in a relaxed position with both hands behind his head.

"Anyway, I'm Riku and this is my idiot younger brother, Sora," the other boy said as he rubbed a hand in Sora's spiked hair. There was a teasing glint in his eye as he smiled fondly at the younger boy. However, that did not stop the indignant exclamation of 'hey!' from Sora as he pushed the older boy's hand away. Kairi giggled happily—she never got to spend any time with kids her age. Most of the time, she only had her nanny and three guards with her. She didn't even get to see Mama and Uncle Ven very much. And when Riku started to walk away, still laughing, for a brief moment, Kairi had the fear that she was about to be left alone.

But a warm hand, already so familiar to the young princess, took her own hand and tugged lightly. Sora smiled brightly at her, which Kairi could not help but return. "You are going to play with us, right?" he asked as he tugged her arm gently.

So filling was her happiness, Kairi could not find her voice and could only nod in reply. She let the boy guide her behind his brother as they seeked out another part of the garden to explore. Flowers could hardly compare to her newfound friends.


	2. The Hero

Author's Notes: Just so you know, I had to pull out some pairings and family relationships out of the blue. Personally, the only couple I support in KH is Sora/Kairi so I had to improvise. I'm using _only_ original KH characters, so I had to think outside the box a bit. I'll have you know there is a distinctive lack of female characters.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" The man speaking to him was wearing strange clothes—that was the first thing he noticed about him. Like straight out of a video game weird. Red cape, black and brown robes, and grey armor that looked more decorative than of any practical use, it seemed like the guy had the full package. There was even some random belt thing that had _three_ pouches on it, which felt a little excessive to him. Then again, he had sort of an obsession with pockets, so he probably shouldn't judge. If he had to guess, he would have said the man was somewhere in his thirties with his hair was a bright blond color, slicked back from his forehead, and he had a short beard of the same color. The man's face was lined with worry and his eyes—a strange bright orange in color—were narrowed as the man stared at him. "You don't have to do this alone."

"It's me that he wants," he said back to the man, but that was weird, too. He could feel his mouth moving and he knew that he was the one speaking the words, but he knew that it wasn't his voice. At the same time, however, the voice sounded familiar, like it was one that he'd heard before but couldn't really remember who it belonged to. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me anymore," the voice that was not his continued. "It's far past time to end this. And..."

"You'll bring back Mommy, right?" For the first time he noticed the small, young girl standing next to the strangely dressed man with her tiny hand clasped in his own. She had short black hair with bangs that hung down the right side of her face. She wore a white dress that was all puffy and frilly—like something out of a fairy tale. A matching headband wrapped around the top of her head ending in a large bow just above her left ear. Her eyes were wide and large—a bright lavender blue. And he knew those eyes—not only that unique color but the shape of them and the depth of expression they held. They were wide and frightened and so very important to him, though he couldn't exactly remember why at the moment.

He stepped forward and knelt down on one knee in front of the young girl. He wrapped one hand around the back of the girl's neck as he rested his forehead against hers, closing his eyes as he did so. "I'll do my best, princess," he whispered to her, even though other thoughts crowded in his mind. He _knew_ that he might not come back from this battle, that he might never see this little girl again. He leaned slightly back from her as he opened his eyes again and saw the tears in her eyes, tears that were breaking his heart. "Your uncle Ansem will take care of you while I'm gone," he forced out, keeping the wealth of emotions he felt out his voice so as not to frighten her more. "Promise me you'll be a good girl for him."

She started wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, even as she was nodding. Through her hiccups, she said, "I promise."

He nodded and rested his hand against her cheek, fighting back his own tears. He didn't want to leave her—he had _never _wanted to leave her. Suddenly, she threw her arms around his neck, squeezing as tightly as her little arms could manage. He returned the hug gladly, wrapping his arms tightly around her back, trying not to hear her tiny sobs in his ears because he had to leave, he had to end this for her, for those that have already been lost, for everyone. He tried to choke back his own emotions again but didn't quite succeed as he whispered in her tiny ear, "I love you, Xion."

Her could feel her small hands gripping the back of his shirt tightly as she could as her hushed voice whispered back, "I love you, too, Daddy."

Sora was so shocked by those words that he gasped and flinched back. Suddenly, the scene melted into white, transforming around him as he came to the realization that none of it could have been real—there was no way he had a daughter. This had to be some kind of dream, but he couldn't remember a time when he'd been so aware in a dream before. He felt that now that he knew it was a dream, then he should wake up, but he was still asleep by the look of the never-ending whiteness around him. Or he was dead. He really hoped that wasn't the case.

Something started to form around his feet, as fragments swarmed in and made some sort of platform underneath him. He took a step back as he realized that it was a picture, mostly of himself, on what looked like stained glass. He saw other faces in small circles near where his head was. Some of them he knew, like Kairi, Riku, Eraqus, and his friends from school: Hayner, Pence, and Olette. But there were others that he was sure he had never seen before—two identical men with blond hair, a man with brown hair, a woman with short blue hair, and a woman with blonde hair. Perhaps the most strange was the man that looked very similar to him, except his hair was black and eyes golden-yellow, and the young girl whom he had just seen in his dream, Xion. Other than himself, which took up about half the platform, and the the people, which took up near the remaining space, by the feet of the image of himself there was a white symbol that looked like a sun or perhaps a star.

"I'm sorry."

The words made him look up from studying the platform to see an almost transparent man standing on the other side from where he was standing. He looked like one of the identical blonde men whose picture he had just seen beneath him. He appeared slightly older than Sora himself—perhaps early twenties—with short, spiky blond hair and eyes the exact same shade as Sora's own—what Kairi had always called the brightest, clearest blue she had ever seen, much to his own embarrassment. But that wasn't all that was similar about them—except for the age difference between them, Sora thought that they could have had nearly the exact same face as each other, almost like the only thing that was different between them was their hair. "Who are you?" Sora asked.

The man gave him a sad smile and said, "I really am sorry for all of that, Sora. It's not the one I would have given you first. But, I suppose it could have been worse."

"What?" Sora asked, utterly confused. He was pretty gosh darn sure that this was the weirdest dream he had ever had. And he was also leaning towards hoping he wouldn't remember it when he woke up. "What are you talking about?"

Suddenly, the man disappeared into golden specks of light before he reappeared right in front of him. Sora took a step back in surprise as he exclaimed, "How did you do that?!"

Once again, the man ignored his question as he reached out and placed a hand on Sora's chest, just over his heart. "I believe that you will succeed where I failed," he said as he gazed into Sora's eyes.

"Who are you?" Sora asked again. It was bizarre to be able to barely see the man's hand, but he could feel it plainly against his chest. The dream was starting to feel more real each second. And that was scary in a way he didn't really want to think about. Sora's ambitions in life were fairly simple. He'd never had any desire to be anything more than the normal boy he was. Delusions of grandeur and dreams of beyond had always been more Riku's thing. All Sora wanted out of life was to have fun, live through high school, and, most of all, some day pluck up enough courage to tell Kairi how he felt about her. This dream that seemed far more real than it ought to be was starting to torpedo all normalities out of him.

The man dropped his hand from Sora's chest, and turned his gaze. Sora followed it to the strange star/sun symbol thing on the platform. It had started to glow. There was a burst of light and then the symbol hung in the air. Floating and spinning, it moved until it came to rest in between Sora and the man. Another flash of light and the symbol changed into a sword. "Whoa!" Sora exclaimed, but as he gazed at the sword, he could feel himself growing more and more drawn to it. It wasn't like any normal sword—the hilt was similar enough to any sword he'd seen in movies and games, but the blade itself…the blade appeared to be made of nothing but pure white light. Sora had the sudden feeling, despite how drawn he felt to it, that if he took that sword, he could kiss his normal life good-bye. So, though his hands itched to take the blade, he hesitated, wondering if this would take him away from Kairi, which was the one thing he would not stand.

But the man was looking at him expectantly. After a few seconds, he himself reached out and took the blade in hand, holding the hilt in one hand and resting the blade on the other. Streaming tendrils broke out of the edges like elegant lightning, and though the man had the blade laid against his palm, he did not appeared bothered by it. "Is that yours?" Sora asked, barely noticing as his hand started to rise from his side, drawn to the sword.

At that, the man gave him a small smile as he said, "Yes. But it is also yours." Then, he held the sword out to Sora, hilt first. Without conscious thought on his part, Sora's hand finished its journey and grabbed the sword's handle. As he touched it, the blade flared brightly and he had to use his free hand to cover his eyes against the brightness. The hand that held the sword he could not move—it was stuck as if glued. He heard a voice whispering in his mind, speaking a single word—_Ultima_.

As the light faded, Sora looked down at his hand to find that the sword was gone. "Where did it go?" he asked, looking around but finding only the platform and the transparent man remaining. He heard soft laughter and returned his attention to the man in front of him. "I still don't understand," Sora admitted, as he scratched the back of his head. A part of him was still sure that this wasn't real; that it was all some sort of vivid dream he hoped to forget when he woke up.

The man reached out and poked his index finger at Sora's chest, right above his heart again. "As long as you have the strength of heart, it will always be with you." A true grin broke out on the man's lips as he said, "I don't think you have anything to worry about." Suddenly, he dropped his hand and turned his gaze up. Sora followed him but couldn't see anything. In a serious tone, like the one he had first used, the man said, "He is coming."

* * *

"Sora!"

He was so startled as he woke up that he literally fell out of his bed onto the floor. He remained under the blankets for another few seconds still half-asleep and reeling in the dream that might not have been a dream. Slowly, he became aware of the chuckling coming from somewhere in the room. Lifting his head with a blanket still partially wrapped around it, he blinked in the sudden light as he searched for the source of the laughter. As he might have expected, he found his older brother, Riku, leaning against the door frame with his arms folded across his chest with his trademark smirk playing on his lips. As was the case nearly every morning when he came to get Sora, Riku was already dressed in his school uniform with his blue-checkered tie hanging freely around his neck and the top few buttons of his white shirt undone. His silver hair used to be rather long, but at the end of the past summer, he had cut it down to where it just rested at the nap of his neck.

With a groan, Sora unceremoniously flopped his head back down in the blankets. "Please find a different way to wake me up, Riku," he mumbled into the blankets.

"Can't hear a word you're saying," Riku said and Sora didn't have to see the smirk on his face to know it was there by the tone of your voice. "But I can't wait to tell Kairi you actually fell out of bed this morning."

Heat flooded his face as he tried (unsuccessfully) to disentangle himself from the blankets around him. He heard Riku's chuckling growing quieter as he moved away from the door and down the hall. "Riku!" he yelled indignantly after his brother, who seemed to only laugh harder in response.

After a few minutes, he finally made his way out of the blankets and tossed them back onto the bed, leaving them as they fell. He ran a hand through his spiky brown hair, which (despite all logic) just grew that way, sticking up all over the place, untameable. Rubbing the grit from his eyes, he felt strangely tired; he loved sleep probably more than most, but he was not one who was a hard riser in the morning. Once he was awake, he was awake (and far too hyper and chipper, if Riku was to be believed). He wondered if that dream had anything to do with it, as he trudged about pulling on his school uniform. Despite the part of him hoping he had forgotten it, Sora still remembered it all in vivid detail. As he finished buttoning his shirt, he slowed and held his hands out in front of him, one palm up, the other down, just as the man had in the dream when he held the sword, until he saw the clock and noticed he was running late.

Throwing his tie over his shoulder, he clomped down the stairs to the kitchen where Riku was seated at the table, with now shirt buttoned and tie properly on, eating a plate of fruit, already finished with his cereal. Riku's father, Eraqus, was seated beside his son; in one hand, he held a steaming mug Sora knew would be full of tea, while a newspaper was in his other. Eraqus looked absolutely nothing like his silver-haired son, who had always been told by his father that he looked the mother who had died giving birth to him. As long as he could remember, Eraqus had always worn his black hair in a short, high top-knot, though a few long bangs hung on the right side of his face. His hard gray eyes slowly moved back and forth as he perused the paper, occasionally bringing his mug to his lips to drink.

Perhaps his most striking features, however, were the two jagged scars on his face—one over his right eye and the other on his left cheek. Sora made a point to ask him every so often where he had gotten them, mostly because Eraqus never told him. That led him to believe that it had to be embarrassing—perhaps some stupid stunt he'd pulled when he was younger (because he'd had the scars as long as Sora had known him), though it was hard to imagine the disciplined, strict Eraqus as any kind of unruly teenager.

"Good morning, Sora," Eraqus intoned in his deep, slightly raspy voice. Without looking up, he continued, "Please put your tie on properly."

Riku gave him a smirk under raised eyebrows as Sora sat down, fumbling with his tie. He should have known better than to come to breakfast without being completely prepared, but he didn't know why he bothered with it some days, since Kairi ended up fixing his tie every morning anyway. Sora pulled the cereal box over to his bowl and poured some in before covering it in milk. Silence reigned for only a few moments until Eraqus folded up the paper and turned his attention to Sora. "Happy birthday, Sora," he said simply. "You're a bit later than usual this morning," he continued in the same flat tone that gave no hint of rebuke.

Sora slowly lowered his spoon back to his bowl as his mind returned to that morning. "I had this weird dream..." he admitted. Despite everything else that had happened in the dream, there was one part that had weirded him out the most. Thoughts focused on that, he blurted, "I had a kid."

There was suddenly the sound of violent coughing from across the table from Riku. Sora could only glare at him for a moment (he was sure Riku was coughing because he'd choked on his food in laughter) before Eraqus shot a question at him in a sharp tone that was not to be ignored. "What was her name?"

"What?"

"The girl in your dream. Did she have a name?" Eraqus repeated.

Sora thought it was a strange question, but he'd seen far stranger behaviors from Eraqus. He would never forget the day Eraqus first met their friend, Kairi. Sora mused back to his dream—he'd known "he" had said it, but he wasn't sure was it was. "It was she—something," Sora murmured as he continued to think. "Xion, I think?"

Eraqus only nodded in response, but Sora was surprised to see how troubled he looked...and how much he was trying to hide how troubled he was. "How'd you know it was a girl, Dad?" Riku asked suddenly.

"Just a guess," Eraqus replied after a moment, but there was a dark expression on Riku's face. Before Sora could ask him what was wrong, Eraqus continued to speak, "You boys better go or you'll be late."

"Dad," Riku began in a low growl.

"Riku," his father rebuked in his own low tone. Sora recognized it as the one he used when he was done with a conversation. The two stared at each other, eyes both hard and narrowed.

After a few moments, Riku sighed and rolled his eyes but stood up anyway, letting the matter drop. Sora glanced back and forth between them, feeling like he was missing something. Then again, it wasn't unusual for him to feel that way. Even though he and Riku called each other brother, Eraqus was still not his real father. He'd lived with Eraqus and Riku his whole life. Yet, he was adopted, and there was sometimes when he felt that he didn't know the man at all. And something had changed about Riku in the last year. Sora couldn't put his finger on what it was exactly, but he knew something was different. "Come on, Sora," Riku said, walking towards the front door.

"'Kay," Sora replied as he stuffed one final giant spoonful of cereal in his mouth and came to his feet. He reached out and grabbed an orange for the road; he was about to leave until Eraqus stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Hmm?" Sora hummed at him in question.

"Be careful today, Sora. It is your sixteenth birthday," Eraqus said. There was a slight pause before he added, "Let me know if anything happens."

Confused, Sora still just nodded at him in acceptance. Eraqus had never been an overly affectionate man, but Sora had always felt that he cared deeply for both Riku and him, even if he wasn't his real son. After all, there had to be some reason Eraqus had adopted him when he was a baby. This sudden _warning_ was rather unusual. "Sure," Sora said easily with shrug. He suddenly felt that he hadn't understood anything that had happened today and he'd only just finished breakfast. Maybe if he talked to Kairi, she'd be able to help. At the thought of his redheaded friend, he grinned and called out, "See ya, Dad!" to Eraqus before he followed Riku out the door.

* * *

_Author's Notes: I have the next chapter done as well, so I will post it in a few days maybe. Er...remind me if I forget._


	3. The Princess

Smoothly, the brush slid through the dark red strands of her hair. Satisfied, Kairi set the brush down and reached for two hairpins adorned with glittering blue flowers; since she didn't have her ears pierced, wearing hairpins occasionally was her own way of personalizing her school uniform. Of course, that was besides the ivory oval-shaped pendant that hung from a thin silver chain around her neck that she wore everyday. Even if it had been against school policy, she would have found a way to wear the necklace, whether she had to hide it under her shirt or something else. Her three uncles had told her it had been the last thing her mother had given her before she disappeared, and she treasured that small connection to her as Kairi barely remembered the woman. She had only been three when she had been given into the care of her uncles.

She knew they weren't her real uncles, but she'd always figured they'd been friends of her parents who'd been given guardianship over her by her mother's will. She knew next to nothing about her father. The only thing her uncle Lea had told her was that he had disappeared shortly before her mother had. Because there had been a deep sort of pain in his eyes when he'd said it, Kairi hadn't had the heart to ever ask about him again. Though she did, on occasion, create this grand epic story in her mind that her mother had disappeared in search of her father and that someday they would both return to her. Because her uncles had been quick to assure her that their disappearance had not been an abandonment of her, Kairi had never had any ill feelings for either of her parents for leaving her with them.

Shaking her head of those thoughts, Kairi returned her attention back to getting ready. After putting on a light smidge of eye shadow to bring out the color of her lavender blue eyes, she slapped on some lip-gloss, looked at herself in the mirror, and nodded in satisfaction. She smiled as she felt she looked her best. It was his birthday, after all. She had plans, and she wanted to make sure that nothing would jeopardize them.

A loud crash boomed from down below, startling Kairi out of her thoughts. A moment later, through the vent in her bathroom, she heard Lea yelling, "Demyx! I swear if you leave your stupid guitar in my way one more freaking time, I am going to blow it to smithereens!"

Sensing she was going to be needed to stop Lea from strangling Demyx as Luxord would probably be of no help at all as he would simply, yet pointedly, ignore both of them, she raced out her bathroom straight into her bedroom. She grabbed her school bag and headed out of her door and down the hall. She took the stairs two at a time, reaching the bottom just in time to hear the end of Demyx's explanation to Lea again that it was a sitar not a guitar.

"I don't care what it is," Lea interrupted before Demyx had a chance to even finish. "Move it or lose it. Got it memorized?"

Kairi took that as her cue and swung around the wall to enter the room. "Good morning!" she breezed cheerfully as she bounced into the room. It was the largest in the house as it was a combination living room/dining area/kitchen. It was also the only real room of the downstairs. The rest of it was mostly a wide hallway that lead straight from the front door to the back. There was a small half-bath and a laundry room, besides the stairs. All the bedrooms were upstairs. Her uncles had the home built when they all moved to Kailua when Kairi was three—the same time her uncles gained custody of her. And Kairi was so glad that they did; there wasn't a place on Earth she'd rather be than here on the island of O'ahu.

Almost involuntarily, her head gave a small shake of amusement as she noticed Luxord at the table, playing cards as she had expected, ignoring her other two uncles in the kitchen. Kairi walked over to the counter and swung onto one of the tall stools that rested underneath it, setting her bag down against the legs of the chair. Putting her face in her hands, she rested her elbows on the hard surface and peered over the hanging counter. "What's for breakfast, Lea?" she inquired sweetly.

Instantly, her uncles' attentions were off each other and on her. It was each in their own way, but Kairi knew that each one of the three had a soft spot for her. Lea turned a smirk in her direction as he said, "Egg white omelet." She frowned at his expression but was sufficiently distracted as he flipped the omelet onto a plate and slid it up onto the counter in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Demyx take advantage of his distraction to carry his sitar over to the couch. The sounds of him tuning the instrument floated around the room.

Lea handed her a fork, and Kairi dug into the delicious omelet. There was a smugly, mischievous glint in his bright green eyes that confused her. "So, today's the big day, eh?" he threw out casually.

Kairi nearly choked on her food and began to cough violently. Within seconds, Luxord and Demyx were at her side, sitar and cards left where they fell as the two rushed over to her. She had to fight down an eye roll—they'd all been over-protective of her for as long as she could remember. "I'm fine," she gasped out and waved her hand at them. Her attention was focused wholly on Lea and what he said. "W-what?" She could feel her face starting to heat up as she realized that her uncles might actually know about her huge, gigantic crush on Sora. Which (while still kind of horrifically mortifying) would make the whole world except the boy himself. It was frustrating to say the least, but Sora was rather adorkable all the time trying to get her to not see how much he liked her. Kairi planned on changing that today. She did not want her uncles to have their protective instincts flare up and ruin it.

A dry chuckle escaped Lea's lips. "You know what I'm talking about, princess." A grimace flashed across her face as their nickname dropped from the lips of the vibrantly red-headed man in front of her. All three of her uncles called her that, and she had never minded the endearment before. But lately, the word had started coming out in a slightly different tone of voice. Kairi couldn't quick figure out exactly what it was, but she didn't like it whatever it was. Lea's other words crossed her mind again—she did know what he was talking about with that. And he was one of the last people she wanted to talk to about it. Her fork played idly with her food as her stomach twisted in knots within her.

She forced herself to take another bite of omelet to stall for time before she had to answer. It was probably too late at this point to play it off, but Kairi figured she could try. "I don't know what you're talking about." She pressed her lips together and did not make eye contact with any of her uncles. She continued to eat her breakfast but knew she probably wasn't fooling any of them. The most she could say about her ability to lie was that she wasn't as bad as Sora.

Her actions earned her a low, dry chuckle from Luxord as he returned to the table. Demyx, on the other hand, didn't even have the decency to try to muffle his laughter as he made his way back to the couch. Kairi chanced a glance at Lea from beneath her eyelashes when she heard him begin to whistle. He was not looking at her anymore, but the upturn of his lips and raised eyebrow said much to what his thoughts were. Thinking that it was just about time that she pulled together the dignity she had left and make as graceful an exit as possible, she scooped the last of her omelet into her mouth before she slid off the stool. Grabbing her backpack from the floor, she swung it over her shoulders as she walked across the room back to the hallway. "Bye!" she called over her shoulder, not bothering to turn to look at her uncles. She didn't want them to see her face, which she could still feel was flaming. Lea's laughter followed her out the door, and she didn't slow down until she reached the sidewalk outside the house.

The weather was warm and bright as Kairi began her walk—unless the weather was bad (which wasn't often), she walked to school everyday. Kairi pulled her sunglasses out of a side pocket of her bag before she had gotten too far down the street; the accessory was a necessity when one lived in Hawaii. She wouldn't see either Sora or Riku until she got to the school because, though they lived nearly the same short distance away from their school, Kuleana Academy, Kairi and the boys lived in opposite directions from it. Therefore, they never saw each other until they all got there in the morning. Kairi had met the two boys almost every morning before school since the three of them became friends in middle school. Within ten minutes, Kuleana Academy came within sight, and Kairi made her way to their established meeting spot.

Gently, she set her backpack on the sidewalk and placed her sunglasses back in their pocket before she leaned against the wall of the gym. They had chosen this spot for the year as both Sora and Riku were in the same physical education classes the first period of the day whether it was an A or B day. Kairi was typically there before them—the days that she wasn't, it was usually only Sora waiting for her. Because, of course, Riku knew about her feelings and tried to help her in his own way.

Only a few minutes passed before Kairi knew they were coming, because she felt Sora getting closer before she saw them. It was the strangest thing that had ever happened in her life, and the one secret she had never told anyone. For as long as she could remember, she'd always had this awareness of something, but it wasn't until she met Sora in middle school that she figured out that it _was_ of Sora. Kairi couldn't pinpoint exactly where Sora was unless he close, but she always knew which direction he was in and a general feeling of how far he was from her. To her twelve year old heart and mind, at the time when she could out it was Sora she was feeling, it was clear that it was because they were destined to be soulmates. As they became friends, however, she easily figured out that Sora did not share the same ability to find her. Unsure of what that meant but knowing this ability was not some figment of her imagination, regardless if it meant they were soulmates or whatever, it had not stopped her from falling in love with him anyway. Kairi had no idea where this ability came from or why she had it, but sometimes she suspected that she was not the only one to have it. Sometimes, she thought Riku had it as well.

The boys were easy to spot in the sea of students heading for the school simply because of their hair—no one else had Riku's unique platinum shade and no one could mistake Sora's logic-defying spikes. Immediately, a smile blossomed on her face in an almost involuntarily reaction, but her expression fell as they got closer. Sora's responding bright smile was definitely muted, and he kept casting wary glances at Riku, who could only be described as glowering. As such, Kairi's greeting was hesitant as she quietly said, "Morning." She offered a small wave.

While Sora returned her morning greeting, Riku merely grunted in response and kept walking right past her, practically throwing the gym doors open as he strode in. Kairi pushed herself up off the wall and blinked after Riku in shock. Slowly, she turned her attention to Sora, who was rubbing the back of his neck and frowning after his best friend. "What happened?" she asked quietly. Absently, she reached up to fix Sora's tie. Most of this year, she hadn't bothered to fix it until after first period because Sora had to change into his gym clothes anyway. Kairi had never quite figured out if Sora really just could not tie a tie or if he never really bothered to learn because Kairi fixed it for him each day.

Sora shrugged his shoulders and scratched the side of his head. "Dunno," he answered. After a moment, he added, "Dad was sort of weird this morning, though."

"What do you mean?" Kairi smoothed his tie against his shirt as she finished.

His shoulders lifted once in a shrug. "I mentioned this weird dream I had last night, and then Dad and Riku had one of those silent battles that I never understand."

"A dream?" Kairi's curiosity was peaked as Sora mentioned this. "About what?"

There was no mistaking the panic that flashed across Sora's face as he rubbed the back of his neck again and raised his gaze to the sky. But that could not hide the faint pinkness that flushed on his cheeks. "Uh...nothing."

If there was one thing Sora was not good at, it was lying (or recognizing the fact that Kairi liked him back, but that was besides the point). Sora was one of the worst liars Kairi had ever met, mostly due to the fact that he wore his emotions on his sleeve and usually never bothered to hide what he was thinking. Taking advantage of that, and feeling slightly mischievous, she nudged him slightly with her elbow and grinned. "What was it about?" she insisted. "Was it about...me?"

"No!" Sora protested immediately as he snapped his gaze down to her. His face was aflame with bright red.

Kairi ignored the small pang of disappointment in her heart and smiled at him. "Just kidding! Tell me about it later, okay?" She tapped him lightly on the chest before she reached down for her backpack. "I've got to meet Olette in the library. See you later?" Sora hummed in agreement and nodded, his attention suddenly back on the door through which Riku had disappeared.

An impish impulse rushed through Kairi as she leaned up on her tiptoes and pecked Sora on the cheek. She felt him freeze beneath her, but she still whispered in his ear, "Happy birthday."

A giggle escaped her as she bounced away. She was stopped in just a few steps when she heard Sora call her name. Kairi twirled on her feet back to him with a smile on her face. He was standing in his trademark stance with his hands behind his head. The bright smile she knew so well filled his entire expression. "Thanks."

Kairi only nodded and turned back around to go inside the school and to her locker. She shoved the books from her bag that she didn't need into her locker and pulled out the ones she did for her first two periods. She slung her backpack onto her shoulders again and weaved her way through the crowded hallways to the school library.

It only took a quick glance around at the tables to realize that she'd beaten Olette there this morning. Kairi had been best friends with the other girl since early in elementary school, and Olette was the person she felt closest to apart from Sora. She wasn't sure exactly when the boy had moved his way into number one in her heart, but Kairi knew it hadn't taken long and it went very deep. Kairi had waited a long time for him to figure out that she felt the same as him, but now she'd decided that she'd waited long enough. Hence, the plan that she and Olette had formatted for Sora's birthday tonight.

She found one of the empty tables and sat down to wait for her friend. She pulled one of the flyers out from the center rack on the tables and took out a pencil from the front pocket of her bag. Idly, she began to doodle a hibiscus flower on the empty back of the flyer. A flash of disappointment ran through her as she remembered that she didn't have her drawing class this morning (it was B day, which meant that she had Japanese first—her drawing class was first period on A days). Kairi's drawing class was probably her favorite class this year (as its previous level class had been last year). Though she had to admit that she was having a lot of fun in the Hawaiian dance class she had this semester with Olette, and she enjoyed being a part of student government.

Not five minutes later, she looked up when Olette slid heavily into the seat next to her. Her best friend looked slightly breathless as she took heavy breaths, but there was a glowing sparkle in her eyes when she pierced Kairi with her gaze. Kairi had the sudden urge to cringe down in her seat with how the other girl was looking at her. Before she could say anything, Olette gripped her arm tightly and said, "I thought we were best friends! You should have told me!"

"Uh...what are you talking about?" Kairi blinked in surprise at her best friend. Her mind ran quickly through everything that she had possibly not told Olette, but she came up with nothing. Olette was already part of the plan for Sora's birthday tonight, so she couldn't be talking about that.

As she was still trying to figure it out, Olette lifted her hand to her mouth as if to ward anyone from hearing as she hissed, "I heard that you were making out with Sora in front of the gym this morning! What happened to tonight?"

It took a full ten seconds for those words to process through Kairi's mind. "What?!" she burst out. Quickly, she glanced around her—those nearby were glancing over curiously, but the librarian didn't even notice at all. Before and after school, the librarian didn't care how loud it was. "I was not!" Kairi hissed. "Who told you that?"

Olette shrugged. "I heard some girls talking about it in the bathroom," she dismissed lightly. She bit her bottom lip briefly before she asked, "So, it's not true?"

Kairi shook her head in response before giving a shrug of her own. "I kissed him on the cheek," she murmured as she traced a pattern with her finger on the table. "But that's all," Kairi assured quickly.

"Well, that's something, anyway," Olette said with a smile. Kairi might have just been imagining it, but she thought she might have seen disappointment flash across her friend's eyes as well. "How are the plans coming for tonight?"

"It's not like there's really anything to prepare," Kairi muttered.

"Did you talk to Riku?"

Kairi nodded her head, but all other discussion ceased as the warning bell rang loudly. The two girls joined the other students in getting out of their seats to head to class. As she was slipping her pencil back into her backpack, Olette said, "See you in seventh!" The brown-haired girl barely waited for Kairi's affirmative hum before she bounced out of the library. Kairi didn't blame her—she did have to get to science hall on the other side of the school. Kairi, on the other hand, could afford to go a little slower as her classroom was in the hallway next to the library.

She swung her backpack on again, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach as she thought about how this day could end.

* * *

Author's Note: Kailua, on the island of O'ahu in Hawaii, USA, is a real city. Kuleana Academy is absolutely one-hundred percent made up, though I did research the high schools in Kailua (and it's neighbor city, Kaneohe) for class ideas.

Also, with any Organization members that pop up in the story, if they have their real name revealed, like Lea or Isa, I will be using that one. If they don't have a real name revealed, like Luxord and Demyx, I will use those.


	4. The Lancer

Author's Notes: So, this chapter is not quite as long as I usually do, but I'll make up for it next chapter (which is also written and in editing). This is the last of the "establishing" chapters, so to speak. Next chapter, we'll really start getting into the story!

* * *

A deep breath escaped through Riku's lips, calming his mind before his boiling anger caused his hands to burst into black flames right there in the boys' locker room. He was still dwelling on the strange conversation with his father that morning. Riku was used to the bizarre behaviors Eraqus would exhibit from time to time, but today was something else. He'd come outside after Sora had followed Riku out the door this morning and pulled him aside so Sora couldn't hear. This had annoyed Riku right off because Sora was more important to him than anyone else—and he was already keeping one secret from his little brother. And he did not care one whit that Sora was adopted; he was Riku's brother and that was that.

"Keep an eye on Sora," Eraqus instructed, his tone nearly an order. His gaze had trailed over Riku's shoulder to Sora. If he wasn't very much mistaken, there was a look of distrust in his eyes as he stared for a moment at the brown-haired boy before his eyes came back to Riku.

Instantly on the defensive for his friend's sake, Riku frowned and narrowed his eyes as he folded his arms tightly across his chest. "Why?" he demanded.

Eraqus had completely ignored his question as he clapped his hand on Riku's shoulder and said, "If there's anything you want to tell me, I'm here to listen." He held Riku's gaze a moment longer before reentering the house. Sora had taken one look at his face as Riku stalked past him before simply walking beside him, eating the pieces of his orange in a rare silence.

Staring at his hands again, Riku sat heavily down on the bench that was between the two rows of lockers. It was when his father said things like that to him that Riku wondered if Eraqus actually knew. He understood that parents kept secrets from their children, but it still frustrated him to no end. Softly, so that it was barely visible, he allowed the purple-black aura of his power to surround his hands. However, he caused it to disappear in an instant when Riku felt Sora coming around the corner of the lockers. He'd always known where Sora was (or at the very least, in which direction he could find him). This annoyed Sora to no end, as his brother could not do the opposite. It had made hide and seek as kids pretty pointless.

However, he probably hadn't needed to worry at all since Sora didn't seem to be noticing anything as his expression was dazed and distant. He had one hand moving slightly over his left cheek. Riku dropped his hands and pushed himself to his feet. "What's up, Sora?"

Sora leaned against his locker. "Kairi kissed me on the cheek. Do you think she might like me?" The look of complete sincerity and hopeful disbelief that Sora sported made it so that the only response Riku could think to that was laughter. It never ceased to amaze him how Sora could not see Kairi's feelings for him. Sora merely scowled at him and ripped his locker open to get his clothes.

Riku left Sora to change and went back out to begin his stretches. His body went through the exercises without thought, allowing him to wonder more about his father's behavior. Riku could not understand it—the distrust that flashed into Eraqus' s eyes. Sora, exponentially more than anyone Riku had met, had this ability to have anyone trust and like him in the single moment they meet. Sora was completely oblivious to this particular trait about himself. He was under the impression that everyone was like him and was just naive and innocent (for there was not really another word Riku could use to describe him) enough not to notice this was not true.

In a flash of understanding, Riku remembered that his own powers had manifested over a year ago on his sixteenth birthday, just as it was Sora's today. What's more, he'd had a strange dream himself that morning of his birthday. Since his view of the world had shifted since he gained these weird powers, his mind had opened to more possibilities. Eraqus had, in fact, implied that he knew about Riku's secret and was not surprised by it. Riku wondered if that meant Eraqus believed that today, on his sixteenth birthday, Sora would manifest strange powers of his own as well.

He glanced around the room, looking at the other students. Riku knew that he and Sora were by far the most talented students in the martial arts class. It was already to the point where the teacher could only pair the two of them together when they did their practice spars for either one of them to have an actual challenge. Though Riku was still better that Sora, it was only by a hair's breadth. Riku was pretty sure the only reason he still won seven out of ten matches was because he had a year's growth and conditioning on his younger brother. It was almost frightening how quickly Sora picked up new moves, especially now they were almost three-quarters of the way through the year and had mastered the basics. And Riku knew it was petty, but Sora had never realized quite how close the gap had become, and Riku was disinclined to appraise him of the fact. There was just something about the fact of his younger brother being better than him at something that rubbed him the wrong way. He supposed many an older brother had felt similar things.

The door opened and Riku watched as Sora came out from the locker room. Slowly, he made his way over to Riku, stopping to chat with nearly every person he passed. With a rueful smirk, Riku was honest enough to admit to himself that he probably wouldn't even think to give more than an acknowledging nod to most of his classmates, even if he wasn't in a bad mood, such as today. While Sora was very free with his friendship, Riku preferred a more tight knit group of people around him. Which, to him, constituted mostly of just Sora and Kairi. He tolerated Hayner, Pence, and Olette for their sake but would hardly seek out any of the three on his own. Due to this, it would make the task Kairi had set for him this evening even more challenging. Then again, Sora was obtuse enough that he probably wouldn't notice anyway.

Riku rolled his eyes as Sora got completely caught up in whatever conversation he was having. He'd probably forgotten altogether that class had started. "Sora!" he called shortly, who jerked and turned abruptly toward Riku. There was not a hint of guilt in his ridiculous grin as he started toward Riku. About halfway there, he performed a completely unnecessary slide-cartwheel-flip-roll combination, stopping just a few feet from Riku in a crouch.

Just barely holding back on the eye roll again, Riku could not stop the sigh that escaped in response to his brother's antics, despite the appreciative applause and whooping from the rest of the class. It was times like these that Riku was mildly reassured that the two of the were not, in fact, related by blood. The kid had way too much energy for this early in the morning. Riku was not opposed to showing off (especially if it was himself doing it), but no one was more flamboyant about it than Sora. The difference was, unless Kairi was around, Sora didn't really do any of it to purposefully show off. His whim antics were literally just for the heck of it.

He knew than any other response would simply encourage his brother, so Riku simply said, "You're going to pull something if you keep doing that without stretching." Typical Sora brushed off his brusque attitude with a laugh and went into his stretches. Because Riku was already finished, he moved through some of the sword exercises they had been taught by Eraqus. It wasn't quite as effective without an actual sword in hand.

He had no idea where Eraqus learned to use a sword. His father was very tight-lipped about anything that had happened before they moved here. But he had been teaching Sora and him everything he knew pretty much since they were old enough to hold practice swords without falling over. Together, they had no problem taking him on, but neither one had managed to beat him single-handedly. Though, Sora had gotten close a few times recently.

Even as he moved through the forms, Riku's hand itched to call upon his own sword. Ever since his birthday last year, Riku felt like the truth of everything was just barely out of reach. More and more, he felt like Eraqus knew exactly what had happened to him after he woke from the strange dream with a name ringing through his mind and a new power in his hands.

"Ready, Riku?" He turned to his little brother and wondered exactly how he was supposed to bring the subject up. He wondered how he was going to explain that for the last year he could call a sword to his hand with only a thought. He wondered how he was going to tell Sora that he could shoot dark balls of fire from his hands. He wondered how he was ever going to ask if Sora could now do the same.

Yeah, he was definitely not ready, yet.

Seamlessly, Riku moved into his opening position and smirked at his brother. "Are you ready to be beaten again?"

Sora laughed as he mirrored Riku and got into a ready stance of his own. "Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky again."

The right thing to do might have been to explain to Sora that luck really had nothing to do with the times he had beaten RIku. But Riku was far too much into his role as older brother and considered it his duty to keep his little brother humble. Even if deep down he might admit that Sora was the least likely person in need of humility, and that it might, possibly, be the other way around.

They moved against each other, neither one quite using the full force behind any of their hits. The rest of the class had already paired up to learn whatever it was the teacher was giving a lesson on today. He and Sora had long since proven how advanced they were and quickly they learned. So, the teacher left them to their warm-up match. Most of the class was used to it as well, as they, too, ignored the two boys in their own corner of the gym and listened to the teacher.

And Riku was never as glad for their attention as he was today. For when Sora flipped backward to avoid one of Riku's low kicks, his eyes widened and his breath caught as just before Sora hit the ground, he seemed to hover, eyes closed and arms extended slightly from his side, for just a second before his feet touched lightly to the ground.

Riku barely managed to dodge Sora's next punch as he launched himself at him. He could tell even Sora was surprised by his slow reaction. And out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Sora's hand encased in white-gold light. Before Sora could pull his arm all the way back, Riku snatched up his wrist, causing his brother to stumble forward. In a normal match, Riku would have used this to his advantage to win, but he was distracted staring at his brother's hand. The light, if it had even been there, was gone.

"Riku?" When he looked up at Sora's face, he noted the confusion in his eyes. It was understandable as Riku had never before not taken advantage of Sora's mistakes to win.

But he ignored all that. A year ago, he might have brushed it off. A year ago, he might have convinced himself it was all a figment of his imagination. Except a year ago, Riku woke up on his sixteenth birthday with a sword he could call with a thought and strange powers. Except today was Sora's sixteenth birthday and his father's warning still rang in his mind. "Sora," he said. "We need to talk later. Tonight after all your birthday stuff."

If anything, Sora just looked more confused than before. "Umm...okay," he agreed, scratching the back of his head with his free hand. Riku let go of his wrist and relaxed, a silent indication that their match was over. They turned to the teach to listen in on what he was saying, but Riku hardly heard. He was trying to figure out what he was going to say to Sora tonight.

After class, Kairi was, of course, waiting for them in the hallway. She threw a smile at Riku before her full attention was turned to Sora. Without thought he was sure, she reached up and fixed Sora's tie, as she asked him how his class went. Then, she linked arms with him and began walking to class, Sora dutifully following along, as she chatted about what she learned in Japanese today. Most of which Riku knew went right over Sora's head, but he listened intently anyway. Riku was pretty sure Kairi could read the dictionary to Sora in the most monotone voice ever and Sora would still happily listen.

Nothing gave him quite as much joy and frustration as watching Kuleana Academy's Official Unofficial Couple interact.

The two brothers had gone to a different elementary school than Kairi, so the three of them hadn't met until Sora and Kairi entered middle school. Sora was pretty much gone for her in the first glance, love at first sight at its finest. So far gone, in fact, that Sora started taking Honors and Advanced classes in high school just for the chance to be in the same class with Kairi. Eraqus had always encouraged their advanced education couple with as many physical training classes as possible. Some part of it had been competition with Riku, too, as he had taken the higher classes as well. But the final nail had been when Kairi came over to fill out their class choices together and Sora signed up for a lot of the same classes as her. Not that Sora was stupid (dense, yes; stupid, no) or anything, just lazy and unmotivated when it came to mental education. But, as he had put it, the chance to do homework with Kairi almost everyday was motivation enough.

And while the three had clicked as friends once they met her, Riku was fairly sure that it took a bit longer for Kairi to fall for Sora, despite that she leaned that way from the beginning. So, Riku had played imaginary third wheel to the non-couple for the last four years. The only thing that made the two of them unofficial was the lack of the confirmation of their mutual feelings. Something Riku knew that Kairi was going to try and change tonight. Riku admired her tenacity. It had become increasingly obvious that Sora was not, in fact, going to make the first move without some sort of push.

It barely bothered him when they split, and Riku began heading in the opposite direction, and Sora and Kairi didn't even notice as they were so involved in their conversation with each other. Riku had long ago decided not to involve himself in their relationship unless asked (as he had been for tonight, though he hardly considered "distract everybody so I can get Sora alone" really as being "involved"). He wasn't sure whether he believed in people being meant to be or soulmates or whatever, but he would point to those two as prime examples if he did.

As he entered class and took his seat, Riku sensed Sora slowly getting farther away from him. He sincerely hoped Sora enjoyed his birthday tonight.

Because after tonight, everything was going to change.

* * *

_Author's Notes: I will seriously try not to take too long editing the next chapter. I really don't think it has that much to it, but who knows?_


	5. The Villain

Author's Notes: Wow, it's been a heck of a long time for this story. Well, I hope you like it.

* * *

Kairi inserted the key into the lock of the front door, letting herself into the house. She knew all her uncles would be out at work, but they all knew her plans for the day. Quickly, she went up to her room to change out of her uniform and touch-up her hair. Already, she could feel Sora moving closer to her house. As one of the two people in their group with an actual license, Riku was automatically the designated driver because he was the only one who owned his own car. He would still have to pick up Hayner and Pence first, but he would be at her house soon.

Despite the fact that they would know where she was, Kairi wrote down a quick itinerary of the evening and when she expected to be back for her uncles. She posted the note on the fridge. Hauling the large cooler from the pantry, she opened the fridge and began taking out all the food she'd made yesterday for their picnic today. She and Olette had put themselves in charge of the food. Not because they were "the girls", but because literally no one else would or could. Sora and Hayner could burn water, Pence would make some weird concoction that no one else would like, and Riku would conveniently "forget" and insist they just go to some fast food place, ruining the whole purpose of the picnic the begin with.

Lastly, Kairi got the sea-salt ice cream pops from the freezer and put them into the smaller lunchbox cooler, stuffing as many ice packs around it as she could. Sora loved the obscurely flavored things, and Kairi could hardly deny him the treat on his birthday.

She could feel that Sora was really close now. Rolling the cooler with her, she grabbed her sun hat and sandals by the door and went back out to sit on the porch to wait for them to come. Kairi sat down on the porch steps with her elbows resting on her knees and her chin in her hands. Less than a minute later, she heard (definitely before she saw) Riku's old Volkswagen van rumbling down the street. Honestly, Kairi could barely stand the thing, but Riku loved the old beat-up vehicle. It was the only vehicle they had between them, so Kairi didn't complain. Out loud, at least, anyway.

The van came to a screeching stop with sounds Kairi was pretty sure cars were not supposed to make. Riku was always saying he was going to "fix it", but Kairi knew that the silver-haired boy had no real knowledge of cars, despite whatever instinct men thought they had to be automatically able to fix anything. It hadn't broken down on them yet, but Kairi wasn't about to trust that it couldn't happen at any time.

Moments before it came to a complete stop, the passenger door opened, and Sora jumped out of the car. Bounding up the sidewalk, he came to a stop at the foot of the steps, just as Kairi finished coming to her feet. Heart fluttering, she couldn't stop the smile that appeared, just at the sight of him. "Hey, Kairi. Need help?" Without waiting for an answer, Sora grabbed the cooler off the porch. "Geez, Kairi. Did you put the whole fridge in here?"

Kairi giggled as she grabbed the smaller cooler with the ice cream and her beach bag. "Well, since you clean out the fridge every time you come over, I thought it wasn't a bad idea." Sora laughed at her teasing and began walking towards the van with Kairi trailing along behind him. He may have complained, but he was carrying it with no visible struggle. Kairi might have pointed out that it was on wheels and that he was more than welcome to roll it to the van, but she was a bit too shamelessly enamored with watching the muscles in his arms bulge with the strain. Sora was anything but body builder material, but if there was an ounce of fat on his body, Kairi would eat her hat. And she'd have to be dead not to appreciate the strength of the boy she loved so much.

To help him out, Kairi hopped ahead and opened the back of the van. Sora pushed the cooler into it, Kairi added her bags, and then they walked toward the side. Sora pulled open the side door for her. And though she didn't really need it, Kairi accepted Sora's hand to help her in. She saw Hayner (who was biting his bottom lip looking for all the world that he might burst into laughter at any second), Pence (whose face was flushed and looked almost embarrassed), and most of all Riku (whose knowing amused look caused her to avert her eyes and heat to flood her cheeks). Sora closed the door behind her and returned to his seat. Riku had turned his amused smirk to his brother, so when Sora glanced up at him, he saw it. "What?" Sora blurted out, a confused turn to his lips. Apparently, it had all gone right over his head.

Kairi bit down on the laugh that threatened to escape. Shaking her head, she turned her gaze away to hide her own amused smile. Kairi loved Sora so much, and his obliviousness was just so endearing at this point.

"Nothing," Riku answered in such fake nonchalance that Kairi heard Hayner give a suppressed snort from behind her. The silver haired boy shifted the van into drive, and they only stopped again to pick up Olette and the rest of the food (Sora also jumped out to help her, but with visibly less enthusiasm as he had with Kairi) before they rolled down to the beach.

Given how much Sora adored the ocean, it came as no surprise when he said he wanted to spend his birthday at the beach. Even if they already spent almost every weekend there already. Kairi rubbed her hands together as Riku circled around looking for a place to park. Her skin was unnaturally pale, even taking in all the what was probably considered an unholy amount of sun block she used. Well, at least unnatural for anyone who lived on Hawaii. Her uncles had always been very laid back, which was why she knew it was kind of strange when they had been rather insistent in keeping her skin protected from the sun. They had been so concerned, in fact, that they had toyed with the idea of moving Stateside. Kairi hadn't been exactly thrilled to move, but at the time she hadn't cared really that much. They were halfway through the process when her uncle Lea told her they had decided against it just after she entered middle school.

Which was fortunate for her because she had just met Sora and had suddenly cared very much about moving.

She glanced up when the van literally sound like it was falling apart when it came to a screeching halt and settled into the parking space. "This is it. This is how I'm going to die." Hayner's theatrics certainly echoed Kairi's thoughts. Suddenly, she couldn't wait to get out of the van. Olette seemed to be taking forever to open the door.

"Hey, don't knock the Highwind."

Kairi stopped and turned on her way out of the car. "You named it?" she asked Riku. Her eyebrows about reached her hairline. She had never heard of this before.

Riku waved his hand dismissively. "Of course," he said before he opened the door and out of the van to the driver's seat. Kairi followed Olette out of the car and moved toward the back.

As Pence climbed out, he asked, "Aren't you supposed to give them a girl's name?"

"Don't look at me," Riku said defensively. "I wanted to name it Naminé."

As the name left his lips, Kairi felt what she could only describe as a resonating recognition. She'd never heard it before but it certainly felt like she had. "That's an unusual name," Olette said. "What made you think of it?"

"Sora suggested it when I asked him for girl names for the van. He's the one who actually named it, too."

"You let Sora name your van." Hayner's flat tone spoke volumes to how unbelievable he thought that was. Kairi was inclined to agree. While she knew Riku loved his brother dearly, he was also usually the first in line to tease and berate him.

"Yep," Sora interjected brightly. "Because I am a Rock, Paper, Scissors Champion!" He reached into the back of the van to haul out Kairi's cooler. As he set it on the ground, he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh man, I completely forgot Kairi's cooler has wheels." There was no reaction to this statement. At this point, they all pretty much ignored any of Sora's dense moments.

Instead, Riku continued the train of conversation, "Anyway, Highwind is not a bad name. Trust me, with the suggestions he had, it could have been worse."

* * *

The sun had started to set a little over two hours after they arrived on the beach. Kairi was thankful it wasn't actually the weekend yet. The beaches were always packed on the weekends (not that it ever stopped them from going). They certainly weren't the only ones out here, but the lack of an entire mass of people certainly helped to make the picnic birthday a bit more private than it would have been.

Her gaze found Sora as the boys were in the middle of an impromptu game of volleyball against some other local boys. The teamwork between Riku and Sora was absolutely flawless, almost like they could read each other's minds. It wasn't going to matter how good the other team was. Against those two, they didn't stand a chance. Having been thoroughly trained by the two, Kairi could dominate in volleyball just as well as they could. This time, she had opted to sit out and watch from under the umbrella with Olette. Partly because Kairi was really the only person who could slide into their teamwork seamlessly (going against the two of them was really unfair, against the three of them was just downright cruel). Admittedly, Hayner and Pence weren't doing too bad. But it was also because she was running through her mind what she was going to say to him.

"Being blunt is always best with Sora," Olette said. Her friend always did have a knack of knowing what she was thinking.

"But what if he doesn't understand?" That was Kairi's only real fear when it came to telling her feelings to Sora. She knew he loved her. (That had been painfully obvious from the beginning, literally. The amount of doors/lockers/wall/etc. Sora used to run into when he caught sight of her in the hall was (while very amusing) a ridiculously high number.) So, there was no need to fear that. There wasn't even the apprehension of the change in the relationship. Kairi wasn't oblivious. Sora was not exactly the blatantly romantic type. She wasn't expecting any grandiose gestures from the boy at all. Indeed, Kairi imagined dating Sora would be pretty much identical to their friendship now. Except that she would be able to kiss him anytime she wanted.

Her fingers idly traced nonsense shapes in the sand beside her towel as she watched him high-five Riku after a particularly impressive spike from the older boy. No, her only fear was that Sora's inability to see her feelings for him would take "I love you" in only a friendly way and not the way she truly meant it.

Olette chuckled. "Come on, Kairi. Sure, Sora's dense when it comes to reading the atmosphere, but he's not stupid. Like I said, be blunt and clear. I'm sure he won't misunderstand. Being with you has only been his dream for almost four years."

"But what if he _doesn't_?"

"Well, I suppose you could always just kiss him. That should get your point across."

"Olette!" Kairi exclaimed at the giggling girl, her face flushed with heat. But then she thought about it some more and realized Olette had a point. It was not a bad idea. Kairi wasn't exactly thrilled to be the initiator in the relationship, but whatever it took to make Sora see that she loved him, she was willing to do at this point.

Deciding there was really no point in waiting any more, Kairi came to her feet and began walking toward the game. "Sora," she called out when she was about halfway there.

Immediately, he looked toward her and abandoned the game to come to her. "Sorry, boys. The missus calls," Riku quipped to the other team, eliciting laughter from them.

"Shut up, Riku," Sora said to his brother. It was truly the greatest mystery Kairi had ever known. With comments like that almost constantly from their friends (Riku most of all), always with little to no protest from Kairi, Sora still did not believe how much she loved him. "What do you need?"

She grabbed his wrist. "Come with me." Kairi began pulling him along, and he followed without fuss. After a moment, she paused and turned to look at Riku. "Remember your promise." With his smirk in place, he nodded and waved her off. Kairi walked down the beach toward the cliffs, pulling Sora behind her.

As Kairi pulled him along, Sora noted that she had one of her "do not disturb" faces on. So even though the silence made him kind of antsy, he pressed his lips together to keep quiet. He didn't like it when Kairi was mad at him, which really only happened when he interrupted her when she had one of those faces on. Sora was burning with curiosity on why exactly she was leading him away from everyone and what she wanted to talk about, but keep his questions to himself.

As they got closer to the cliff, Kairi cut to the right and entered the trees. They could still see the beach as there weren't that many trees, but they were now under the illusion that they were completely alone. The beaches usually started to clear out around sunset anyway.

Kairi's hand slipped from around his wrist as she turned to face him. Sora tilted his head curiously at her. She had crossed her arms in front of her chest and was shuffling her foot on the ground. Her bottom lip was tucked under her teeth, and her eyes were gazing somewhere to the side of him. All of the sudden, Sora was concerned that something was wrong. Ice sliced through his veins at the very idea. "Kairi, what is it?" he asked. He took one step forward, closing some of the space between them.

His hand was halfway up to reach her her when her eyes locked onto his own. The certain fire in them made him think that far from wrong, something was very, very right. Though he could hardly explain exactly what that was. All he knew was that it made him catch his breath in anticipation and his heart pound in his chest. "Sora, I—"

"He's here," Sora blurted, not exactly sure where the words had come from. But he knew they were true nonetheless. All of the sudden, he had this awareness he could feel, as if he knew where someone was, and he wondered if this was what Riku felt when he could feel where Sora was at. Sora had asked him once how it felt. Riku had described it as this little light spot on the edge of his mind.

This felt nothing like that.

It felt dark and foreboding and made Sora want to get as far away from it as he possibly could.

"What? Who's here?" Sora brought his gaze back to the girl in front of him. Kairi's eyes were narrowed and her lips were turned down and slightly pouting. He knew this look. Kairi was not pleased by his interruption.

Normally, this would prompt Sora to do everything in his power to get her to smile again. But the feeling of needing to be _anywhere_ else at the moment was overpowering. He grabbed her around her upper arm and almost started dragging her. "Come on, Kairi," he said as he walked quickly back toward the beach. Back in the direction of where Riku and the others were. "Let's get out of here."

However, they'd only taken a few steps before a voice, utterly foreign, strikingly familiar, and cold as ice, spoke from behind them. "Oh, it's far too late for that, boy."

Sora whipped around, instinctively pulling Kairi behind him as he turned and moving into the defensive stance Eraqus had drilled into him and Riku. Never before had Sora seen someone with silver hair apart from Riku, though this man's hair was of a dark, more grey shade, contrasting starkly against his darker-toned skin. As they first made eye contact, the man's golden-orange eyes widened almost imperceptibly for a brief moment before they narrowed in assessment. "Interesting," the man almost drawled. "Are you supposed to be my counterpart in this world? I've never heard of such a thing."

"Who are you?" Sora asked. He could feel it. This man was the dark presence that ate away at his mind. Every cell in his body screamed at him to get Kairi as far away from him as he possibly could.

The man's face remained blank, almost emotionless, when he answered. "I have had many names. As of late, I am known as Xemnas, the Superior of the In-Between. Now, hand over the princess, and I will let you go. I have no interest in this world or its people. Yet."

"Princess?" Sora repeated.

He could feel Kairi's hand grip the back of his shirt tightly. Her breath was on his neck as she stepped even closer to him. Despite the situation, Sora felt shivers down his spine and hair-raising goose bumps on his arms at the touch of her warm breath on his skin. Her voice was a whisper in his ear when she spoke. "I think he means me." The quiet, breathless quality of her voice gave away exactly how terrified Kairi was.

Sora's whole body tensed, instincts screaming to protect her no matter the cost. His grip on Kairi's arm tightened. He felt her head rest against his shoulder and nod. He hoped she had gotten the message. He shifted his grip down her arm to her hand, so she could run better, and felt her tighten her own grip on his hand. "There's no way you're taking Kairi." His body exploded into action, as he pivoted quickly and took off running. Kairi stumbled a step or two but recovered quickly. She was right behind him. Seconds later, they were on the beach, and Sora turned to run to where Riku was.

Suddenly, Kairi cried out, and he felt her hand slip from his. He had taken two steps before his body reacted to her missing presence. Sora whipped around, stirring up the sand as he did. The strap of Kairi's sandal had broken, and she was gripping her ankle. Resolved to carry her if he had to, Sora's body had shifted back in her direction, just as she wincingly started to her feet.

Then the ground seemed to explode between them.

Sora's hands rose to cover his face from the spray of sand as he was flung off his feet and slammed into the ground. The sand cushioned his fall, but he could definitely feel a bruise forming on his back. Kairi consumed his thoughts, however, so he pushed past his pain and pushed himself up.

In the haze of the settling air, another man now stood between him and Kairi. His hair was light blue, and he had a giant x-shaped scar between his eyes. The weapon he held (and there was no doubt in Sora's mind that it was a weapon even if he couldn't say how he knew) looked almost like a giant bluish silver sword topped with a yellow cross surrounded by a blue sunburst. It was also just barely longer than the man was tall. Despite that, Sora had no doubt that the man could wield it with deadly skills.

Beyond him, Kairi was lying on her stomach, covered in sand. He could see a few red scratches on her arms and legs, but none of them appeared to be bleeding. Even as he watched, she shifted and began to push herself up with the palm of his hands. "Kairi!" he exclaimed. He scrambled to his feet to go to her, not caring about the man and his giant weapon.

He was stopped short by another man dropping out of the sky. His salt and pepper hair was drawn back into a ponytail, and there was an eye patch over one of his eyes. More important was the silver and red weapon he held straight at Sora's heart. He didn't know what it was, but if he had to guess, Sora would have said it was some type of gun. He held another just like it in his other hand, propped on his shoulder. "Uh-uh," he tsked. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

As calm and collected as he could be, Xemnas stepped out from the trees, radiantly power with every step. He turned his cold gaze to Sora. "That was not a request."

* * *

_Author's Notes: Now we are getting into the real action of the story. Prepare yourself for a bunch of epic characters to arrive soon._


End file.
